Goshinboku no Kokoro
by Kanna37
Summary: The ending to a tragic love story spanning centuries is found on the grounds of the Higurashi Shrine - all wrapped up in the legend of the birth of the God Tree.


**Goshinboku no Kokoro**

(Heart of the Goshinboku)

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Inuyasha.

-cCc-

Hikaru Higurashi sighed, looking out the open door of the storage shed he was sitting in for a moment and wistfully looking at the Goshinboku, and the bald spot on its bark that was the only remaining symbol of the hanyou Inuyasha's existence.

It had been a year since Kagome had been home, and that year had taken a toll on their little family – what was left of it, anyway. The worst part of the whole thing was the not knowing... was she alive, but unable to return because the well had sealed, or had she, kami-forbid, died there in the distant past in some long-forgotten battle?

As hard as it was for him, missing his grand-daughter as he did, he knew that it was even harder for his daughter-in-law... because it was _her_ daughter that was missing. When it had been apparent that Kagome was not returning, they had reported her absence to the police, giving a fictitious account of how they had been on a shrine trip and unaware that she had disappeared for some time, and that was why they weren't sure when she had disappeared. It had been a bit lame, but was the only thing they could come up with.

The police had been suspicious, but truly, they were not guilty of harming Kagome, which meant there was nothing there for the police to find.

And so it had been a long year - a year of sadness and loss.

He did what he always did to get through it – he buried himself in his shrine duties, just as Hitomi busied herself with her duties as a mother to her young son, and they'd made it through... so far.

Still, it didn't seem to be getting any easier, and with the wisdom that came from long life, he knew it never would. He supposed he would be the first to find out what had happened when he passed into the afterlife – whatever had happened to Kagome, she would be dead now, in this time, whether she'd died in battle or just been locked out of the well. It didn't really matter in the end.

With another sigh he pulled his mind back to what he was doing, once more working his way through the shed. This particular shed hadn't been touched since his own grandfather's time, and any lists of what had been stored here were long gone – and so he'd taken it upon himself to begin cataloging it all.

An hour or so after his break, he reached the bottom of the pile of artifacts he'd been working on, and squinted at the small metal cylinder that had been hidden under everything there for so long. Curious, since he'd not seen anything like it before, he picked it up, and realized very quickly that it was meant to store scrolls... ecstatic at the discovery, he attempted to pry it open, hoping that it wouldn't be damaged. There was really no way to tell how old it was, though it looked to be in fairly good condition.

Surprisingly, it opened with relative ease, and as he looked inside, to his joy, there was most definitely a scroll stored within. Carefully upending the case, he gently slid the ancient scroll out of its resting place, once again surprised to see the good condition of the parchment. It unrolled easily, still supple; the excitement that overtook him as he read the first few characters was palpable... it seemed to be a re-telling of a legend about the Goshinboku – and how it became the sentient God Tree.

Standing slowly, he moved as quickly as his aged body allowed, holding the scroll protectively close to his chest as he made his way out to the tree. He wanted to sit at its base as he read the story – it just felt right.

Once settled, he carefully opened it back up and began reading.

_In the days when the tree now known as the Goshinboku was young and still just a tree, a young half-demon was pinned to it by a priestess as punishment for a crime mistakenly believed to be his, before she passed away. She was the Guardian of the Shikon no Tama, and when she passed, she instructed the villagers to burn the Sacred Jewel with her body so that she could take the accursed bauble with her to the other world. It had been her hope to keep anyone else from suffering a dark fate due to its corruption._

_Fifty years later, a young woman appeared in the village. Rumor says she came from a land far away, a land that she needed great magics to even reach. It was discovered that she was a miko, and the reincarnation of the priestess who had been the Shikon's guardian fifty years past. She was born with the jewel inside her body, you see, and as soon as it became apparent that the jewel was once more in the living world, evil demons and humans alike came looking for it. _

_In the confusion of being attacked for a jewel she wasn't even aware she possessed, she freed the half-demon from the tree he was bound to just as the cursed jewel was freed from her body when the young woman was bitten. In the course of another attack, the young miko unwittingly shattered the jewel, scattering its shards far and wide over the lands._

_And thus a dangerous task befell the miko and the hanyou that became her first companion - to gather and reassemble the jewel, so that no evil could gain its power._

_As time went on others joined the miko and the hanyou in their quest, all of them with two goals in mind; to complete the jewel and purify it out of existence – and to destroy a most dangerous, evil half-demon that was obsessed with gaining the power of the jewel for himself._

_The quest went through many ups and downs, and slowly the companions bonded, becoming like family – the miko, the half-demon, a demon slayer and her fire neko, a lecherous monk, and a kitsune child. But closer than all the others were the miko and the half-demon, for the two, though forbidden by the wisdom of the time, fell in love._

_There were many things that attempted to come between them, not the least of which was the young miko's own former incarnation, which the hanyou had also been involved with, and though she'd died those fifty years past, an evil witch had created her a new body of clay and stolen a portion of the miko's soul to power it. Still, as much as there was against the two, their hearts would not be denied, and their love only grew stronger as time passed. They became nigh inseparable, both willing to give their lives for each other without question._

"Wait a minute... this is a re-telling of Kagome and Inuyasha's story - how does that play into the Goshinboku? But... this could very well tell what happened to her! If it does, no matter the outcome of the tale I will offer thanks to the kami for leaving this for us to find." He spoke aloud, not fearing anyone hearing – the shrine was quiet for the day.

Turning back to the scroll, he continued on with the tale.

_Finally, after many months of fighting and chasing the evil hanyou there came the terrible final battle for possession of the jewel. It was long and it was fierce, but eventually the companions were triumphant, winning the battle, the jewel, and effecting the destruction of the spider hanyou that was the cause of so much suffering._

_However, their victory was bought at great cost. The young miko was struck a mortal blow at the last while defending her hanyou love, and only managed to purify the completed jewel and give it to the hanyou to wish upon before passing away._

Hikaru bowed his head, praying sadly to the kami for his grand-daughter's peace in death, the fore-knowledge that she truly had to be dead not enough to keep the tears from his eyes, though pride was also in his expression – his Kagome had died with honor, and a person couldn't ask for more than that.

But with that knowledge came the question – why hadn't Inuyasha come to tell them? Had the well sealed at her death? _'I guess I need to keep reading... at least now I can tell Hitomi and Sota Kagome's fate, _he thought sadly.

With a quick swipe to his eyes to dry the tears, he kept reading.

_The hanyou was devastated and completely inconsolable at her passing, and refused to allow anyone to touch her body, carrying her back to their home village and straight to the tree he'd been pinned to for so long. For two days he sat there contemplating his available choices. _

_At first, he thought to use the jewel to bring her back to life... but as he sat there in his grief, some people came from another village not far away and cast aspersion on him and the miko for their love, and he knew then that even should he return her to life they would never be allowed to live and love in peace._

_It was then that another answer came to him, and in his grief-haunted mind it seemed the only good answer to be had. Calling his friends together he explained what his wish was going to be, and then asked the monk for one last boon – that he would write the account of their adventures and of the ending of the quest, so that future generations would know of their past. Then he bid his saddened friends goodbye..._

_And made his wish._

_What was his wish, you wonder? Simply this – that his soul and the soul of the young miko as well would be forever bound each to the other – and to the Goshinboku, so that they would never again be apart, not in life or in death. And so came the birth of the God Tree, as it came to be known for the sentient souls at its heart..._

_The miko, and her hanyou love._

Eyes wide and heart pounding, Hikaru climbed to his feet, turning to stare up at the tree that Hitomi had always told the children watched over their lives... and knew that it was all true. Kagome and Inuyasha were still watching over their family – just as they had watched over the shrine grounds for five hundred years, and kami willing, would watch over it for five hundred _more_.

Raising a shaking hand to touch the tree, awed, his hair almost stood on end as he felt a gentle touch back against his hand... one filled with love, and one that he could clearly feel both Kagome and Inuyasha in.

"Thank you, Inuyasha, for having this scroll written for us – so that we would know, and not spend our lives in pain for wondering about both your fates." He smiled affectionately, a few tears still running down aged cheeks at the caress of a soft breeze across his face. "I must go and share the news with the rest of the family... I am sure they will want to visit you, too. We have missed you..." he trailed off for a moment, then finished...

"Both of you."

The Goshinboku rattled it's appreciation softly as the male wandered towards the house. If he had stayed a moment longer, he might have heard the voices of the great tree whispering to each other...

_I love you, Inuyasha._

_Keh. I love you, too, Kagome._

-cCc-

A/N: This is a completely different type of thing than I have ever written, but when the idea came to me, I just couldn't get it out of my mind, and truthfully, I didn't even want to. I know this isn't canon, but it was just something so beautiful, to me anyway, that I had to write it – I actually felt compelled.

The idea came from a picture I saw in an Inu/Kag AMV – don't know who the artist was, but it showed Inuyasha still on the tree wrapped in vines, but with Kagome held to him, also covered in the vines. Although this piece isn't strictly what was depicted in the fanart, still, it just struck me... and this is the result.

Hope everyone enjoys reading it as much as I did writing it through the tears that it made me cry.

Amber

Note: I have been re-editing all of my older works, and this has played some havoc with them. Just like with Malice, as I was working on the new version and getting ready to upload it when my daughter's adorable kitten whose name is - ironically enough - Havoc, came running across my keyboard and not only deleted the version on here, but the version that I had just edited on my laptop. I freaked, forgetting that I had a copy over on Mediaminer and so I just had to go over there and copy it and re-edit it. I am not the only one to lose things to kitty paws, there are regular shrieks in my house as one of our NINE cats runs across someone's lap and deletes something important. At any rate, I am now reposting this story so those who enjoyed it originally may do so again.

Amber


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